http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=/ForeignBureaus/archive/2 00710/INT20071030a.html Cuba Expects Big Show of Support at UN By Patrick Goodenough CNSNews.com International Editor October 30, 2007
(CNSNews.com) - Tuesday will be a big day for Cuba when the overwhelming bulk of the world's nations side with it against the United States in the U.N. General Assembly in New York. Ahead of a vote on a resolution condemning the 45-year-old U.S. embargo on Cuba, the island's communist rulers and allies are confident that Washington will be more isolated than ever on the issue. The world body has voted on lifting the embargo every year since 1992, when 59 U.N. member states voted in support of Havana while two countries -- Israel and Romania -- voted with the U.S. The majority abstained. Since then, each year's vote has seen the number of member-states abstaining dwindle -- 16 in 1997, eight in 1999, two in 2003 -- as more and more countries have supported the resolution. Israel alone has voted with the U.S. in all 15 votes to date. In last year's vote, 183 nations -- including Cuba -- voted for the resolution. Israel, Palau and the Marshall Islands voted with the U.S., and only one country, Micronesia, abstained. During last year's debate, Australia tried to amend the Cuban-drafted resolution by adding a clause saying the embargo was motivated by "valid concerns" about the lack of freedom in Cuba and calling on Havana to release political prisoners. The Australian amendment was voted down by a 126-51 vote, prompting Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque to say the U.S. had been dealt a double defeat after using a "puppet" to try to distract the U.N.'s attention away from the blockade. The Cuban News Agency ACN recalled last year's vote and said the "powerful empire" had found itself isolated, with some of its closest allies voting against the U.S. policy. Cuba's state-run Prensa Latina news agency reports that Perez Roque was busy Monday, meeting with U.N. diplomats and the president of the General Assembly, Srgjan Kerim. It said Cuban diplomats are hoping for "rousing support from the world community" and have not ruled out the possibility of achieving a new record number of "yes" votes for the resolution. The leftist governments in Venezuela and Nicaragua are also looking forward to Tuesday's vote. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro predicted a resounding victory, while Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said it would be virtually unanimous. Ortega added that the result would reflect the international community's response to President Bush's recent policy speech on Cuba. "It was a disrespectful and interventionist diatribe," Ortega said of the speech last Wednesday, in which the president said the U.S. would continue to isolate the Castro regime. Perez Roque said last month that the embargo has cost Cuba $89 billion in losses, including $3 billion over the past year alone. In his speech last week, Bush said Republican and Democratic presidents "have long understood that the source of Cuba's suffering is not the embargo, but the communist system." "Trade with Cuba would merely enrich the elites in power and strengthen their grip," he said. "As long as the regime maintains its monopoly over the political and economic life of the Cuban people, the United States will keep the embargo in place." Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said last month the embargo has been successful because it has denied President Fidel Castro resources -- as was its aim. "When he has had resources, it usually has been used to somehow threaten Cuba's neighbors and fund guerrilla movements -- anything that can hurt the U.S.," he said in a speech at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., citing the 1962 missile crisis and Havana's aid to armed leftist groups in Africa and Latin America. "That has been their policy for over 48 years, and that has been more important than putting a focus on the plight of the people in Cuba," Gutierrez said. "So when there have been resources, Cubans have not benefited; only Castro, the Cuban military and foreign com/-munist guerrillas have benefited." 'Not productive' European and other U.S. allies that oppose the embargo say they do so because of regulations, contained in the Helms-Burton Act of 1996, that apply to companies and investors from third countries with interests in Cuba. They also cite the view that -- in the words of Australia's official policy -- "confrontation and isolation are not productive policies in relation to Cuba." In the U.S. Congress, a number of lawmakers from both parties disagree with administration policy towards Cuba, among them Reps. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.). Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, a long-shot Democratic 2008 presidential candidate, has pledged to lift the embargo if elected. "Other than the war in Iraq, no other American policy is more broadly unpopular internationally," he said last month. At the front of the Democratic race, Cuba has emerged as a point of difference between Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), who over the summer undertook to ease restrictions on Americans who want to visit or send money to relatives in Cuba; and rival Sen. Hillary Clinton (N.Y.), who said in reaction: "Until it is clear what type of policies might come with a new government, we cannot talk about changes in the U.S. policies toward Cuba." The leading Republican presidential hopefuls all support maintaining U.S. policy toward Cuba. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? 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